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33 .\" from: @(#)wc.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
35 .Dd $Mdocdate: October 24 2016 $
40 .Nd word, line, and byte or character count
49 utility reads one or more input text files and, by
50 default, writes the number of lines, words, and bytes
51 contained in each input file to the standard output.
52 If more than one input file is specified,
53 a line of cumulative count(s) for all named files is output on a
54 separate line following the last file count.
56 considers a word to be a maximal string of characters delimited by
58 Whitespace characters are the set of characters for which the
60 function returns true.
62 The options are as follows:
65 The number of bytes in each input file
66 is written to the standard output.
68 Use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte,
69 Petabyte, and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to four or fewer
70 using powers of 2 for sizes (K=1024, M=1048576, etc.).
72 The number of lines in each input file
73 is written to the standard output.
75 Count characters instead of bytes, and use
80 The number of words in each input file
81 is written to the standard output.
84 When an option is specified,
86 only reports the information requested by that option.
87 The default action is equivalent to the flags
89 having been specified.
91 If no file names are specified, the standard input is used
92 and a file name is not output.
93 The resulting output is one
94 line of the requested count(s) with the cumulative sum
95 of all files read in via standard input.
97 By default, the standard output contains a line for each
98 input file of the form:
99 .Bd -literal -offset indent
100 lines words bytes file_name
103 The counts for lines, words, and bytes
105 are integers separated by spaces.
107 .Bl -tag -width LC_CTYPE
109 The character encoding
111 It decides which byte sequences form characters.
115 or an unsupported value,
117 has the same effect as
127 utility is compliant with the
133 is an extension to that specification.